We do use these satellites, which are sensors that are orbiting the earth in different manners to make observations of the planet. In this case, we're interested in sea ice cover observations or snow cover observations and they relay or send that data back to us, to some of our centers. We collect the data provided to analysts that look at it and makes an assessment of where the ice is.

One of the important aspects of deploying buoys on the ice is that they do provide us with information about the motion of the ice. So we track the ice with that data, but also they provide information about the atmospheric conditions (quality of the air), which are important to understand the development of the ice for example temperature, pressure.

Figure out what aspect of oceanography you may be more interested in and then go into a hard science first. It could be biology, it could be physics, it could be chemistry or geology, something fundamental. And then from there on, move on and apply oceanography study.